GOVERNMENT: Boost for Bonds

Among the casualties of the Government's
tight-money policy have been owners of U.S. savings bonds, who hold $56
billion of the total $277 billion Treasury debt. As other interest
rates have risen, the rate on savings bonds has fallen far behind. As a
result, sales have slumped (in 1956 the Government hoped to sell $5.65
billion, sold only $5 billion), and the number of bonds cashed in has
soared. In January alone, the Treasury paid out $136 million more than
it sold in Series E bonds, after the highest redemption level for any
month in nearly eleven years.